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UPDATE: As Deadline predicted, Warner Bros has emerged the victor in a spirited bidding battle for the Dan Fogelman pitch that has Tom Cruise attached to star. Five studios were in the mix after Fogelman met with all the studios yesterday to pitch the film he’ll write. I’m told the deal was just under $2 million upfront against just higher than $3 million if the movie gets made.
EARLIER EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has emerged at the frontrunner to pay seven figures for an untitled pitch by Crazy, Stupid, Love scribe Dan Fogelman that has Tom Cruise attached to play a politician who gets caught in an affair. With his reputation in tatters, the pol retreats to his hometown to lick his wounds, repair relationships and confront his past. There are other bidders in the mix, including Fox and Paramount, and MGM is taking a run at the property. WME is brokering the auction.
It’s not surprising that Warner Bros would be aggressive. The studio paid $2.5 million for Crazy, Stupid Love and turned it into a much-buzzed-about summer film that will star Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling. The bidding for the new project is north of $1.5 million at the moment, but it could go higher. Fogelman, who has scripted such animated films as Tangled, Bolt and Cars, continues to write scripts that fuel multimillion-dollar spec deals. He got $3 million from Warner Bros for his script Imagine, on which he’s slated to make his directing debut with Carell starring. He followed with a deal at Indian Paintbrush to direct an adaptation of the Jesse Andrews novel Me & Earl & The Dying Girl, which Andrews will adapt. Fogelman’s other script, My Mother’s Curse, is in production at Paramount with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand starring.
As for Cruise, he’ll next star in Rock of Ages, New Line’s adaptation of the Broadway musical, playing the decadent rocker Stacee Jaxx for director Adam Shankman. He also recently came attached to Oblivion, the Joseph Kosinski-directed sci-fi film based on the Radical Publishing comic property. Universal is negotiating to finance and distribute after Disney dropped out of the project and let Kosinski shop it so he could make it PG-13. Cruise is repped by CAA.
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Fogelman is a great writer, no denying that, but we’ll have to see if his well-written, yet [for lack of a better word] smallish stories will do well at the box office. this is not meant as a slight at all, I have read all his scripts and enjoyed everyone. Obviously he’s done well with the animated stuff already and if he’s making $3 million per script i’m sure he’s not overly concerned.
No interest in Cruise at all
His stories aren’t small – they’re structured in classically cinematic scenarios that appeal to a broad slice of viewers. They’re human / character stories that have great sentiment. They’re not small, they’re just not aliens blowing up cowboys.
And he can write the aliens blowing up cowboys stuff too… Thank god he doesn’t.
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve worked closely with Dan and can honestly say he is the most talented Hollywood writer of his generation. I’m so pleased for him.
Good for Dan. It’s always nice to see someone with actual talent succeed. Added bonus that he’s a nice guy.
It’s untitled?
From the logline I’d call it: HOPE VOTES.
thank god people dont let you name stuff
Dan might be a good guy, and talented, but when you have ‘actors’ like Tom Cruise on you project how good can they ever be? And Hollywood wonders why attendance is down double digits…do they really think a movie like this will help? Sorry, but I gave up on Cruise long time ago, well before his appearance on Oprah.
Aren’t there any adults out there who will take a chance on a good script with someone who can actually act? And not just have powerful lawyers and agents?
Its truly unbelievable this guy is still in movies….
Tom Cruise played a Nazi and it still did over 100M. What are you talking about? I’m sure he was Dan’s first choice. It’s kind of the perfect role for him.
Claus von Stauffenberg was not a Nazi. He was an incredibly brave family man who risked everything for his belief in a better Germany. From Wikipedia: Claus von Stauffenberg was a German army officer and Catholic aristocrat who was one of the leading members of the failed 20 July plot of 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler and remove the Nazi Party from power. Along with Henning von Tresckow and Hans Oster, he was one of the central figures of the German Resistance movement within the Wehrmacht. For his involvement in the movement he was shot shortly after the failed attempt known as Operation Valkyrie.
Yes, but the reasons he wanted to kill Hitler had nothing to do with the reasons you might want to believe. Genocide wasn’t really his dilemma so much as, ‘we can’t win the war and eliminate all inferior races if we continue to fight in the way Hitler is proposing.’
So he was not a member of the Nazi party?
This post clearly states that you have never put a movie together – not a hollywood one anyway. It is so darn hard to get movie stars onto a movie and when you go down the list of available actors – the lists are very small.
Getting Tom Cruise is a massive “get”.
Name me some others. Sure, Mark Ruffalo, great actor – but you can’t then sell the thing.
Leo. Pitt. Damon. Bale. Whalberg. Pine….Busy till 2015.
Your post is juvenile. If you had a script and Tom Cruise called you because he was interested – you’d jizz your jeans.
not to mention he’s a talented actor.
Preach it brother! Cruise is a movie star that gets movies made. Some of his movies have under performed and others have been mega hits.
Remember all those haters and naysayers pronouncing Cruise’s career over about three years ago? “Scoreboard!” Seems there was a tad more life in the Mav than you all thought.
And, yes, Fogelman’s got a great writing voice, plus he really knows how to create a character you live and die with.
Scoreboard?! You obviously don’t remember his last movie. Read below:
“Tom Cruise’s vehicle Knight and Day was labeled a “belly-up flop” in the United States because it opened in late June with $20.1m on its initial weekend (the spy caper had been out since Wed. that week). Not helping matters was Cruise’s reputation as a Couch-Jumping Scientologist. Its run is almost over, Tom Cruise’s “flop” has taken in nearly $76m at the domestic box office. Not a bad figure, though a disappointment considering the film’s $117m production cost (not including marketing/distribution expenses).”
There is no doubt American’s are over Cruise. He’s a selfish, egotistical, greedy, liar. We all know the truth about his lifestyle yet he proceeds to live a lie for the sake of movies and money. Anything he’s attached to will not make as much money as it should. If WB is smart, they will dump Cruise for someone like Damon and get the box office $$ this movies deserves.
Cruise’s last film made @ $260 million worldwide, not counting dvd sales or streaming revenues. Matt Damon’s last film, The Adjustment Bureau, was up to @ $61 million at last count.
Scoreboard, bitch!
So if you were a studio head, and both Cruise and Damon said yes to your Summer tentpole, you’d go with Damon? Marvelous. You’d have a pretty short executive career.
I recently did a rewrite for a producer who also happened to be working with Cruise on another film. He had nothing but praise for the actor, saying he was completely professional if a bit eccentric — but then, most A-listers are.
“He’s a selfish, egotistical, greedy, liar. We all know the truth about his lifestyle yet he proceeds to live a lie for the sake of movies and money.”
Just what is it we’re all supposed to know the truth about? How is he selfish and what’s he lying about? If you have inside information on Mr. Cruise and his lifestyle, please share with the rest of the class. As another poster stated, Cruise jumps up and down on a couch, and now everybody wants to take him down?
Is it the Scientology? Is it the rumored gayness? Is it the Scarlett Johansen rumor that just won’t seem to die?
Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. Cruise moves units. That’s the bottom freaking line. And this is a business about moving units. More importantly, it’s a business about covering your ass. And attaching Cruise to your film is just about the best way to cover your ass in this town if you’re a big studio producer. Don’t you watch Entourage?
Well put, jessr15.
Thanks, Sterling.
You had me at show me the money WB for Congressman Jerry Maguire.
for the record i wasn’t trying to insult Fogelman using the word small. i love this guys scripts. i just wonder if they will appeal to the dumber movie goers and if you don’t think most movie goers are dumb, fast and furious FIVE comes out next month, FIVE!
Fogelman is an awesome writer, at the same time this type of thing (2M for a PITCH of a low-key drama) reflects the town’s lemming mentality. Fogelman is the Hot Shit Writer of the Moment and everyone wants his stuff because everyone else is wanting his stuff, not because it makes sense to pay 3M for a pitch of what sounds like a Cameron Crowe drama from ten years ago.
The above commentator was right that the types of scripts Fogleman has been selling for a few million a pop have not been tested in the marketplace; he’s had some bona fide hits in animation, but “Cars” is a whole different ball game from “Imagine” and “Crazy Stupid Love” and this political thing, which concept-wise sounds like a retread of “Elizabethtown.”
Again, Fogelman is a GREAT writer and I love his scripts, but the cash being delivered in dump trucks to his door step for his unproven, low-key, low-concept dramas is totally out of scale with where the industry is right now.
I just hate to see a feeding frenzy over this guy that will result in the next Allan Loeb.
When you’re selling drama pitches for $2m/$3m, I don’t care who you are, it’s more a market frenzy than anything. The man himself probably knows this, which is why he’s churning them out so quickly – at the moment he can get more or less anything he wants, so make hay while the sun shines. Eventually the powers that be will realize he’s not the reincarnation of Shakespeare and things will slow down – that’s just the way it always goes. In the meantime, good for him, pack it away – he’s reached a summit only a few writers ever have.
Of course he’s selling comedy pitches and specs with dramatic elements…
Not sure if the Loeb/Fogelman comparisons are fair. While I agree that Fogelman’s live action features have yet to be tested at the box office, they have all been great scripts, which totally worked on the page. Loeb has been churning out crap that didn’t even work on the page, let alone at the box office.
I sincerely do hope that Fogelman’s stuff gets translated to the screen – because the guy writes great characters, sharp dialog, and carefully observed stories. In a world where Hollywood is focused on comic books and sequels and movies based on board games, we should all be rooting for Fogelman and his movies.
Dan seems to be single-handedly knocking the ball out of the park. I don’t know how he does it so consistently but, “I’ll have what he’s having”?
I don’t know. 2-3 mil is a pimple on the ass of the glut of Hollywood money. He and other writers should be the HIGHEST PAID creatives in Hollywood. 20-30 million Should be the norm as they are really the only true creators of content. NO ONE works without the creative input of the writer. Witness the improv tour of some of our “actors”. Nuff said. More $’s for Creativity! LONG LIVE THE WRITERS!!!
Do buyers insist on a closed acting deal for Cruise before forking over $2m for something like this?
Cruise is box office poison, I have no clue why anybody would want to get involved with him right now.
Box office poison??? Are you kidding me?? Didn’t you read the comment above stating that Cruise played a Nazi two years ago, and the film made over $100 million domestically? He is still very much in demand and can still command a huge payday. Studios would kill to work with him. Even if his career *were* winding down — and it shows no signs of doing so — high ranking execs would still shell out the big dough, because he’s basically an insurance clause. “Hey, it’s not my fault the movie flopped, I hired Tom Cruise…” So, get a clue — that’s why they’d want to get in business with Cruise.
His last movie did 260m box office worldwide. Not a hit, but not a flop, and the movie was actually pretty good, so it went a ways in rehabilitating his image. If he makes the right picks and the movies are executed for a reasonable amount of money, people will make money. And, I am not a fan of his at all, just pragmatic.
How on Earth is he box office poison?
Its the Scientology
All this Cruise-bashing is idiotic. He jumped on a chair so now we hate him? Here’s all the things Tom Cruise isn’t doing: he isn’t screaming racial slurs at anyone, he isn’t going in and out of drug rehab, he isn’t beating up/threatening with a knife his wife/girlfriend, he isn’t getting pulled over for DUI. He believes in a ridiculous religion? Name one that isn’t. He’s short? So were Chaplin and Cagney and Alan Ladd, is it a crime to be short?
For 25 years, Cruise turned out great entertainments (still does, IMO) and hugely popular successes, but now you can’t find anyone who ever liked him. I call bullsh*t. All these cowards suddenly see a little weakness and want to get their kicks in. Cruise is still the only major star who really takes chances in the types of movies he makes — Vanilla Sky, Valkyrie? They may have ultimately been artistic failures (it’s debatable) but he took risks in his image and in the type of movie he normally makes to do them.
Cruise is still the only star who can get me to go to a movie just because he’s in it. With rare exception, I’ve never been less than entertained by one of his movies. And Knight and Day was more entertaining than Salt or The Hangover.
I like your post. Tom Cruise is my favorite actor because he picks entertaining, enjoyable movies which he commits to completely. When are people going to let go of his Oprah incident? Seriously? For all the people who say they hate him or think he’s weird or whatever, they’re really just envious clowns. Come on clowns, move on with your lives.
That being said, it’s great to see a writer getting his dues and getting compensated. I hope it’s a sign of a long trend. A good story is the blueprint of a good movie. Period.
Excellent post. A voice of reason, finally.
Ugh, I haven’t seen anything with Cruise in it in over a decade. Won’t see this one either.
Well I think his is agood writer so if his making 3 million per script than I think it ok
@ Ed — you are correct! It is absolutely mystifying that in a “creative” field, the content INTERPRETERS are celebrated and richly rewarded and the content CREATORS are marginalized.
If movies were houses, writers are the architects, producers are the general contractors and directors are interior decorators (doing what they can to make the house that someone else designed as livable and attractive as possible).
Quick, you have an unlimited amount of funds to design and build your dream house: do you want a house designed by the world’s greatest architect and built by a competent contractor, or a house designed by a competent architect and built by the world’s greatest contractor?
Who is more crucial in realizing your dream house? Who would you pay more?
Alas, more thought and care goes into building a drab, $200,000 suburban split-level than most $200,000,000 Hollywood concoctions.
Would love to see some of these character-driven films do well, but as others have commented, they have yet to succeed in the marketplace or even with critics. Tangled was a great surprise, but Cars was pedestrian (pun intended) and Bolt was painful. He should sell every pitch he can think of while he’s on fire. But before we annoint him, he need to see some miracles on the screen.
Great combo– Cruise and Fogelman, with Warner Bros bringing it to life. Looking forward to this creative project.
After Rock of Ages, Cruise will be back on the map and then this softer Fogelman comedy will be a perfect next picture. Good move by both.
Fogelman is a great writer and without doubt today’s hottest. He has great people around him and has made all the right moves. It’s nice to see something going right in this business.
Is it just me or is Crazy, Stupid Love a virtual retread of Hitch? I’m thrilled for Fogelman, and believe he’s talented. But i’m not buying the hype until i see his live action scripts prove worthy of real praise.
its about time writers start getting paid!It all begins with the writer[s]. without them you have nothing. and for decades writers have been disrespected and treated as low man on the totem pole. writers should be making more than everyone involved with a film, with the exception of directors and actors. WGA leadership…can you hear me? Studios, can you hear me?
i read fogelman’s imagine script, i think that sold for 2-3 also. quiet honestly, it was very well written but far from groundbreaking. The story is cliche, the characters are stereo types and it all seems like re-hashed stuff. don;t gte me wrong, it was a pleasant read, but that’s all it was. i can’t imagine it doing big box office, no pun intended
Three words, one punctuation mark: Fred Clause GREAT?
1. Fogelman ain’t God. You wanna talk genius comic writers, you’re talking Billy Wilder and a handful of others (Wes Anderson if you want a live body). The apotheosis of the slightly above average (and an inability to recognize it as such) is why Hollywood movies suck today.
2. Cruise is a brilliant actor when he wants to be. Anyone who saw Magnolia and says different is full of shit. Yes, Scientology is a nefarious cult. What does that have to do with acting?
3. Never saw Elizabethtown. Pitch sounds to me like The Clinton Tapes meets Farragut North.
tom cruise was clearly robbed of an oscar in two films and debatebly in two more.he is worldwide the highest grossing actor in history without the help of a single billion dollar film.he is no doubt the king of hollywood and by far the most consistent hit maker in hollwood.no other actor comes close.the dude has never made an unwatchable film some other so called A listers ie {brad pitt,jolie,depp,ford,gibson.
so what he jumped on a couch,so what he`s a scientologist?
long live king cruise.